husband and other woman have e-mailed on my computer and i want to retrieve these files. is there a way to do this without hiring someone to come in and do it for me. i know this sounds sneaky, but he still hasn't come 100% clean with me yet. please if someone knows how and can help,let me know.

Look in Windows Explorer for the C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files. Inside this folder there will be several files and folders. Inside each folder look at each of the files- expect this will take time. The Web sites will be in there with every little graphic from every page saved as a seperate file too, so you will save yourself time skipping the .htm and .jpg and .gif extension files unless you are looking for porn- ... but that's another story. There will be some files that say they are 0kb in size you won't be able to open with anything- don't worry about it, just skip them.<p>If a file asks what you want to open it with because it doesn't recognize the format choose notepad out of the list and click ok (Larger files will require wordpad- but use notepad if you can as it reads them better- if the file is too large by default it will ask you if you want to use notepad- says yes (expect to see a bunch of gobaldy-[censored] in those files though, with some actual words intermixed- these are generally emails that come with alot of graphics in them like from a e-zine or something.<p>You can also- and I would look in his email in his saved mail and sent mail and deleted mail folders.<p>Hope that helps.<p>[ January 21, 2002: Message edited by: ScaredInNY ]</p>

thank you so much, im not to comp. savvy. hopefully this works. going to try it now. any other advice welcome.

There are also key stroke logging programs that run completely invisible in the back ground and will track everything typed including emails- passwords- everything.<p>Try http://www.pcacme.com/
or
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10105-100-2662060.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-1.2662060<p>
There are others too.

got as far as you told me but still couldn't get in the few that opened were scrambled. this is so frustrating. i know they are in her-i just want to see for myself. please send any advice.

I assume you are sure they are emails- not everything in there is. It's not uncommon for the emails to be in there as two different types of files, you might try another file with different extension but same name. I guess your best bet if this fails then is to get his email password and check out his sent/saved/deleted mail.<p>A couple of way to do this. One- if you are the main account holder you can request it by calling your ISP (say it's an account you haven't used in a long time). A better idea though is the key stroke logging programs. This will get passwords to any and all emails he is checking including any hotmail accounts etc you might not know about.

i already have password but he deleated everything that was in there and i know there were lots in the past. i went back into windows explorer to windows found maolbox file but comes up long and scrambled using wordpad. there are 544kb pst file. could this be it?? i hate that i cant do this.

still needing help. if you can tell me what to do or what im doing wrong or if this is all a waste of time i would appreciate it.

Go to the Find Files or Folders option in your programs bar. Type in: mail, then try, hotmail, then, excite. This will scour through the directories finding any and all files related to these things.

Do a search ( or find) for files *.dbx. If you are using Outlook Express, it creates these files on your computer. I found a software tool that will read the files. There will be a file for each of the mail folders... inbox.dbx, deleted.dbx, and so on. This program will extract all of the undeleted mail. It will also be able to extract some of the deleted mail. You can get the software and an explaination of it's features on this web site.<p>http://chattanooga.net/~scochran/DBXtract.htm<p>[ January 21, 2002: Message edited by: zorweb ]</p>

nikko,
breathe and realize you may not have the answers today. If you need to hire someone cause your not computer savvy then hire someone to search your computer and install a program that they can show you how to use. I guess the point I am trying to make is that I used to obsess and make myself crazy trying to figure it all out. Even when I found something it wasn't enough and I wanted to find more. Plus if he is computer savvy then he is very aware of how to cover his tracks. Keep searching and praying - the truth always comes out.

Try going to recover4all site and downloading their free software. This will retrieve recently deleted files, that are on your hard-drive.

If he deleted in the mail box you probably won't find anything in the mailbox file. Look in C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 and all the weird named sub folders under that. It may or may not turn up anything but it's worth checking.<p>You should be able to read the .dbx files with just plain notepad.

I'm researching .pst files right now. Looks like there are tools to read them. Generally outlook puts the deleted emails into a file that is kept. You will not find those deleted emails in your windows trash. They are kept by outlook.<p>Give me a few and I'll have it figured out.

You go zorweb. [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img] <p>I also found this- http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-100-6730657.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-9-19.6730657 It's $69 but it claims to be able to recover deleted files even after a full reformat- should do the trick too.

thank you all im still trying. gonna try your suggestions now. hopefully you can help me figure all this out. just found out there is hotmail. im so clueless. at least im still smiling. be back to check soon.

You know what- I went back to read the reviews and saw alot of mixed messages on that program- some claim wonderful things some say it's a waste of time and there is better recovery software for the money- you might want to do some searching for recovery software before you decide on one, I've never used this.

Oh- i just ran into a good idea reading a post I found out on the Internet searching. If he deleted the messages in the last day or two your ISP might be able to recover them all from their back up tape. Call them (since you know his password they should do this for you) and say that you accidentally deleted an important message permanently and ask them if they could restore it fromtheir tape back up for you. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0[/img] My goodness that is beautifully simple and devious. I think I'll stop now. [img]images/icons/wink.gif" border="0[/img]

unfortunately he deleted them awhile ago-not sure-maybe a week and longer. this is getting fun though isnt it. tried the find folders idea-got nothing. gonna try other suggestion now. dont give up on me-i found a way into his e-mail when i was locked out ------ICAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!

TRIED THE TEMP INT FILE CONTENT.IE5 COULD NOT FIND. STILL TRYING!!!!!!!!!